(via https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n_E31JBJ7C4)

Spiderman for the PS4 is an incredible experience. It’s way different than any spiderman game out there. This game is the beginning of the next evolution of marvel turning their comic series into video games. This is what I wanted from Marvel the entire time; for them to create an incredible spiderman game that immerses you in story, fighting skills, and the best combos you have ever seen. It may take something from the Arkham series but it adds its own nuance and amazing web-slinging fun, and that’s what people want from Spider-Man. Web-slinging fun, taking villains seriously and, having the best villains. When you fight Shocker, when you fight the Sinister Six, and Mr. Negative (and find out who Mr. Negative is), everything comes together. If you are the type of person that’s not spoiled by trailers or don’t even watch a trailer or watch one second of a teaser, Spider-Man immerses you in an entire world full of ass-kicking, web-slinging, amazing characters and the story is just full of immerse-ness. You can grab onto the Spider-Man story and relate to every single comic, and there’s more mysteries within Spider-Man. There’s more that leads up to the stories of Spider-Man. When you’re going on a mission to collect back-pack pieces, everything for the back-pack, everything that he lost when he was in his younger years, has a story within it that you find. Including, a capsule that holds Sandman and that’s crazy and beautiful. It holds the essence and it holds Sandman. It may be a hint to other future games coming out from Insomniac games. This is the best moment for these characters and for the amazing Spider-Man himself, not just dealing with silver-sable, not just dealing with the backlash from kingpin. It’s the story coming out of there that’s incredible. Especially after the buildup of Doc Ock becoming evil and Spider-Man defeating him, as well as Peter’s relationship with Mary Jane and them getting back together. After playing Spider-Man and seeing the Spider-Verse, seeing characters, and finding out where they’re going next, you kind of get the connection between the two (game and movie). They’re amazing because you can see the suits, the costumes, and you get a bit of the story of Spiderman and Mary Jane. But, Peter in his adulthood trying to adult, and trying to hold down a job and pay his bills and his mortgage, it’s kind of hard to see him still struggle. It’s different seeing him going from the Daily Bugle to being a scientist and doing what he loves to do, something we don’t see often for his character. We also find out that his relationships with people are also kind of diminishing. I think in real life, we all go through the same struggles but this never makes Spider-Man selfish. Peter Parker is never selfish. And when they introduce Miles Morales, the selfishness is never displayed, it’s always “defend the people,” “for the people,” “do what’s right” and “don’t be selfish with anything.” That’s incredible coming from such an amazing character as Peter. And seeing the growth of Miles Morales before he loses his father in the game is even better because we’re taking a different look from the ultimate comic universe, in the video game. We get to see Miles, his hacking skills, and his relationship with his family. We see everything from the character up until the moment Mr. Negative attacks the town hall meeting with mayor Osbourne—and Miles’s dad dies. That is one of the hardest moments, because even Peter gets knocked out and we get to play as Miles for a moment and you get to use hacking scenarios with him. We also get to run from the rhino with Miles, and that is incredible. And then we also get to fight and punch up some guys with Miles for the first time. As the Spider-Man story progresses we see the growth of Miles when he gets his spider bite, we see the growth of the relationship between Peter and Doc Ock and how that relationship has failed, which is scary. We saw Doc Ock turning into a monster and turning into someone that was fueled by anger, deceit, destruction, and even when that deadly gas hit, Peter could have saved his aunt but he didn’t. And he had let his aunt die to save others. This is the most grueling part of the game, where Peter’s aunt passes away and now he has to take the mantle of an adult, he has to grow even further, he lost his aunt May and uncle Ben, and the only one he has left is Mary Jane by his side. Just going further in the story, finding out that Harry Osbourne is not on a trip in Europe, and he’s actually been held (willingly) in Oz Corp. behind secret doors. In the scene where MJ gets scared by a spider, Harry Osbourne is behind secret lab doors and at the end of the game, seeing that he’s surrounded by the venom symbiote, we get an aspect of the story that’s incredible because Norman Osbourne is using the symbiote to maybe try to cure Harry of the same disease his mother had, which is very emotional. The story layered is incredible and Insomniac games has pushed the envelope of what a Marvel and Spider-man game is. People say that there are many Spider-man games that have done the same thing. Not like this. Not story elements, not cinematic elements, nothing. From fighting all the enemies, to the story, to the hunts and the quests, you can never get bored with this game. You can never ever get bored with an incredible Spider-man game. There’s so many quests, there’s so many hunts, and there’s DLC that’s already out. If you haven’t played it, silver sable, hammerhead, black cat; 3 incredible DLC’s that are already out and people can’t wait for what’s next with the game, if there is anything. People can’t wait for part two. I can’t wait for part two. And that’s the thing, because we all want to know what’s gonna happen next. I hope they introduce Kraven the hunter and the Chameleon. I hope they introduce more aspects of Spider-man’s rouge gallery. And that’s another part about Spider-man that’s amazing. You can never stop wondering what they are gonna hint about in the comic, what comic are they going to hint, what movie are they going to hint to, what comics are they going to just throw out there, like “this is from this comic and that is from this issue.” As a Spider-man fan and a comic fan, anyone that buys this game knows there’s a lot of heart and soul that went into this. I thank the creators, I thank the producers, I thank the voice actors, I thank everyone that did every visual thing on this game, to the audience in New York City. I wish they had dialogue DLC so the dialogue could change up for the character and the emotes. But the web-slinging is incredible, the diving is amazing, the combat is smooth and sick and crazy. And the best part about taking pictures in New York City is that you can see Avengers Tower, you can explore and, the missions are just amazing. This is a solid Spider-man game, and whenever part two comes out, I hope it beats this one in sales and everything. And also that we get to choose from as many suits as possible. People love this game for the suits. If you’re a Spider-man fan, you should grab this game. You should cherish it forever, if you got the PS4, hold on to it. If you got the statue, you’re awesome. People may have invested a lot into this but it’s worth it. Every investment into a video game is worth it. Shout-out to the studios, thank you so much for creating an incredible game. I loved it. I can never stop playing it. I platinumed it and beat it, and I want the second one to be so hard that I can’t even reach a platinum. So, thank you Insomniac studios, thank you to the entire crew that worked on this game. So much awesomeness. A. Ringling

The journey through god of war is very, very different from all the other hack and slash games in the genre. You no longer deal with Blades of Chaos and the gods of Olympus. You are completely thrust into a new world and mythology. You are dealing with Kratos after the death of his wife, as someone who’s moved on from his past and started a new life. And seeing the growth of him and his son Atreus, Kratos is a whole different character now, interacting with Norse mythology. Seeing the tag team style of playing with these two, the father and son aspect is like the bear and the cub, the bear being someone with a lot of age, youth, wisdom and time, Atreus as the young cub being stubborn and greedy and wanting to just have fun. Fighting enemies and leveling throughout the game is a struggle in itself and the hardest difficulty. We meet Freya, which is the wife of Odin. We meet the brothers Brok and Sindri, which are the best forgers in the game when you are able to level up and get more items. Even with these two characters and their story, they are interlocking brothers who hate each other and still love each other. They are always separate, found in different areas and have different ways of approaching their craft, but are still brothers. Sindri can listen to the metal differently than his brother when forging, He’s insanely clean and can communicate with humor which is incredible. Brok is a dirty, grungy, hands on type of specialist in feeling weapons when trying to forge. He gets the feel of the blade and gets it to tell him what it wants to be. His brother might not understand it because he doesnt wanna get his hands dirty. In that way they are different, but still similar because they are both still forgers, dedicated to their crafts. There’s also Freya, and seeing her story and the love that she has for her son Baldur. It drives her to cast a spell, making him invulnerable to pain and it drives his character throughout the game. He looks to undo it, and even though she did it to protect him, Baldur sees it as another way to try to control him. So we see a lot of comparison stories between family relationships and dynamics and, love that means well but doesn’t end well. Even when it comes to Kratos finally telling his son in Atreus’ most scary moments of possibly dying that he is half God and realizing the evolution of Atreus one day becoming Loki. Knowing his own past, he is unsure of how his son will react, especially after instilling the belief in him that Gods are bad and evil. The best part of the game is when you sit down and talk to Mneir, just a magical talking head. As you’re rowing through the waters, Mnir has all the stories every time you go to different lands and kill certain creatures. He tells the stories that have happened in Norse mythology, and they’re incredible. Knowing his history with Odin and how he lost his eye and got bound by a tree, is incredible. Even his relationship with one of the, supposedly, most loving, powerful, and wise Valkyries (which is one of the final battles in the game and extremely hard), is incredible.There are more interlocking stories with family and crewman-ship and fathers and gods killing their children, that you have to play to find out. The core mechanics may still be hack and slash but here, you must always have a plan of attack and a strategy. You have to be being quick on your feet, always waiting for the opponent’s next move and always being hesitant on what you can and can’t do with your weapons. No matter if the enemies are big, small, dragons, or even fighting Norse gods like Thor’s sons. The game tackles a lot of family aspects but also puts you in tough situations. Now you can make choices, which can be super detrimental towards the game. When you finally get the blades of chaos, when Atreus is dying, it feels like a return to the original God of War. That rage returns as well as the move set and attacks. Even the moment when you see Athena appear in front of Kratos as the boat is moving along in the river. Watching the world be destroyed around him, as Atreus is dying and as we get the blades, you as the player feel that it’s time to unleash the original God of War, no holding back, no more using the axes, now you have combo attacks, and you feel like you can defeat every difficulty (except on super hard cause they get super hard), even fighting the Valkyries takes almost everything you’ve got (and I believe they are the best things to fight in the game). Even though we never get to see Odin as a character, you always get the stories of him and his dictatorship and his overwhelming power as the all father. You get to see how Kratos’ wife would always defeat Thor without even fighting him, simply outsmarting him every step of the way because she planned steps ahead of him. You will always get something from this game, which is more backstory than what was given in the first 3 installations for the Greek mythology side. It’s a build up, even when you have Atreus back in good health and you tell him he’s a God, you feel the shift in his character—the cockiness of a young boy, the arrogance of a young god/giant—and that changes over the game, as he realizes his way and understands his father more. In more than one way, Kratos and Atreus both grow as characters. There is painful growth at the end when you kill Baldur, Freya’s son, as Kratos seems to parallel his father Zeus as a God and a father. Kratos says the same line that his father said in God of War 3, “we must be better,” and snaps Baldur’s neck. But, in that moment of release, Baldur is free to truly die. Freya may hate you and we may have created a new enemy, but the actions of killing her son were because Atreus didn’t want to see Freya’s son kill her. Here, Kratos chooses to end the cycle of children killing their parents (who are Gods), and brings it back to God’s killing Gods, by killing Baldur himself. And we may have created a new enemy in Freya but, Kratos and Atreus thought it best to protect her. Coming closer to the end, you find that Atreus’ mother laid everything in front of him. She knew their path would be almost harder than anything and even in the beginning. She had Kratos chop down those enchanted trees because she knew she would have to push Kratos one way or another to get what she needed done. It may have exposed their location to Odin, but that’s what she needed to happen. Kratos felt safe and hidden. She needed him to be exposed to the world and not lock himself away, trying to control his anger, and at the end when you spread her ashes over the giants that are all perished, Kratos is free to remove his bandages. He is no longer afraid to show his old scars and show that he is the God of War. And when you go home and finally beat the game, that ending is something that you wanna fight in the next game. That ending is something that I kind of played to see and hoped happened and there’s so much speculation and so many possibilities. So playing this game was a journey. I took days and days to extend my play, to make sure I got every single enjoyments out of it. As a fan of the series, as someone that brought a statue with a hardcover case, seeing Thor at the end made me happy because we only got to visit a few realms out of the game. For the next one, I can’t wait to visit the realms we couldn’t go to, and I hope that we get to play as Atreus only in the game and at the end we get to play as his father. This God of War game had so many conflicting emotions, but it was able to tell the story of a father, a family, a brother, and it was able to push you to hope and see and wait for what’s next. So, I thank Sony, Santa Monica Studios, Cory Barlog, and the entire team for GOW from voice actors to digital effects, to music. This game has overpowered me and changed my perception of how people can change over time and it was able to tell a beautiful narrative. So thank you, and I can’t wait for the next one. A. Ringling

Dragon Ball Z Fighter Z is an amazing action-packed game. Incredible combat, awesome specials, fantastic team specials, and good switch out moves. The game has a lot of rich characters and a lot of techniques to combine with each character’s move set. The game is stunningly beautiful and combines everything good from all Dragon Ball Z games. It gives us everything we want, and takes away all the sloppy combat, fighting mechanics and redundant storyline from 3D Fighters. An amazing storyline from a first person point of view, beginning the game with you (the player) as a unknown soul inhabiting bodies. Incredible characters each with unique interactions (like Gotenks arguing with Gohan about who looks cooler, Gotenks or Great Saiyaman), which is really nice. It makes the game very immersive; you feel like you are actually part of the Z Fighter universe which is really cool for someone thats familiar with the game. It doesn’t make you feel out of place at all when the other characters interact with each other, even when they talk to you in the soul link. The villain makes the game very interesting because theres more of a story behind that character that everyone can dissect for themselves. Android 21’s character design is super sexy, super hot (a personification of beauty and scariness) and to top it off her move set is really awesome. She has combination attacks with her tail mixed in with her beams. Her move set feels really natural and not out of place, like she was already in the show. Android 21’s character offers a new world to explore. 
With the announcement of Bardock and Broly, and more DLC characters on the way, we can only guess who those other characters are(Check out my predictions here). These characters can be better fleshed out in the game with combos, incredible move sets, hopefully special moves we haven’t seen yet, and anything else they can take from the manga or anime. Hopefully they can put in characters that we miss from the old Dragon Ball and DBZ or even the movies, as long as they make them more interesting. Honestly, seeing who’s missing from the roster, its obvious who’s gonna be put in the game and who’s not just by seeing the series and the older shows. 
The game is very immersive, but has it’s drawbacks. It’s disappointing how easy you can pick up moves. Anyone can feel like a pro just by picking up the controller and learning the simple move set with square for light, triangle for medium, and circle for heavy. There are basic combinations mixed in with specials and that somehow makes the game seem too easy. But if you play it on hard mode it’ll feel more like a challenge and you’ll advance and probably pick it up faster. The skills you learn fighting story mode on hard can be used to predict how people fight online, helping you on all fronts.
The Beta may have come out way back, but people who played it learned quicker than people that couldn’t play the Beta. There seems to be a struggle fighting other players, but thats the best thrill in the game; getting your ass kicked and going back in the game to get better. Android 16, Goku Black, Blue Vegeta and Blue Goku are the most overused characters in online matches. Android 16 has a lot of grabs and is a missed character because he was destroyed so long ago in the series. Goku Black is hack for his 3 specials (while most characters have 2), his instant transmission that doesn’t take up a bar, a Kamehameha which summons his Kai to grab you and his far special that can reach you across the field. And, his sick entrance. Blue Vegeta has flashy combos with a hint of bravado which is true to Vegeta’s character. Blue Goku has an easy mix up and an air wave that angles well to support combos. Even though you may feel like you can’t go five matches online without seeing these guys, they’ll still be fun to use playing with friends without feeling pressure to rank up. 
All in all, this game is incredible. If you were a fan of the Budakai series, this game will deepen and reinvigorate your love for the series and make up for the disappointment that was the DB Xenoverse Series. This game feels like a new beginning for the DBZ universe. It’s the game fans deserved after the Playstation 2 era DBZ Tenkaichi series. If you know someone who is a fan and they love this series, they need to play this game. If people are interested in it, they need to play it. Overall the game just feels likes it’s giving new life to something that you grew up with. There’s a fun story mode, fun character interactions, awesome specials, explosive finishers, and just crazy fun no matter who you are, or matter what character you play. It makes you feel awesome.
Transcriber and Editor: Atiyana Ringling